Evendays

I just finished writing and sending out our email ministry newsletter. I find this a difficult task and it often gets put off a week or two or three until it becomes abscessed and then it has to be pulled, I mean written up, before people think we’re dead.

We used to send everything by regular post, then email and post. Now it’s just email. When Randy and Sandra encouraged me to blog, this became a primary way of keeping people up to date, but it’s not a habit for all supporters to automatically surf over to Evendays. I understand.

One day, blogs won’t fill the gap either. Both Wife and Daughter are on Facebook now, which explains the current financial recession in the USA. Facebook, at least when you start it, is a FULL TIME JOB.

I’m not saying Facebook is not worth it. Wife has had contact with people she loves dearly but had heard from only twice this millineum. She and Daughter compare who has whom as friends (Daughter has more) and then talk about writing on someone’s wall or getting or sending tickles or pokes (or something).

For now, I’ll stick to 2 hours a week on blogs.

Having your Sunday worship in a retirement home brings up some very important yes-or-no / black-or-white theological questions. I mean, they are either you do or you don’t. No in-betweens:

1. Should you wake someone up to give them the Lord’s Supper?
2. Is it acceptable to say: “Please sit and sing the invitation song”?*
   
3. Should you put on a clerical robe because one of the residents keeps “whispering”, “Where’s the Pastor? Where’s the Pastor?” all during communion?
4. After the reception, is it okay to go home with a pocket-full of Lindt chocolate eggs (four varieties) that were left sitting in a bowl next to the mini-quiche, or is that, technically, stealing? (Hypothetical question… Honest.)
5. When I’m in a home (one day), will the desire of my heart be to praise God and fellowship at his Son’s table on resurrection day?

True… Some of those questions are a bit more important than others.

*Actually, not a problem, since we don’t have invitations.

Monday after Easter (Lundi de Pâques) is always a holiday here. It’s just like Good Friday (Vendredi Saint). All the shops are closed. You’re not supposed to work in the yard, for it’s a time for rest, reading, thinking, family, skiing…

Snow fell on Friday, Saturday night, Sunday and Monday. It’s one of the problems of an early Easter and for those who enjoy searching for chocolate eggs.

Sunday worship was at the local retirement home. 40 to 50 of the residents showed up as well as 2 great families from the Geneva church who came to encourage the Lausanne church. It was a meaningful morning, celebrating our Lord’s resurrection and the new creation in Christ.

The sermon was simple: Death is still the enemy; Life is greater than death; Our destiny is glorious.

Chantal Sébire was only 52 years old when she was found dead in her home on Wednesday, just hours after French courts refused her request for doctor assisted euthanasia. Talk had been that she’d come to Switzerland to end her life, for assisted suicide, if certain criteria are met, is legal here.

Ms Sébire was horribly disfigured by esthesioneuroblastoma. She had lost both smell and taste. Her sight left her last fall. She desired to die. She wanted the suffering to end.

Can good come from death? Some long to end their suffering, calling death “deliverance”. Others, fatigued by life, see it as a portal into a world when they feel they have nothing left to offer in ours. Some accept a heroic death if it means protecting others.

Yes, there is an upside to death.

But I’ve come to see it as the ultimate evil, truly our enemy, not because it’s the opposite of life, but because it’s separation from life. Ms Sébire’s suffering was a consequence of this separation, and what she needed, what we all need, was not death, but life.

Life is greater than death. In the end it will conquer, for God is not indifferent to the suffering of Ms Sébire, nor to ours. He is the God of life. And he has the last word.

Peace on Ms Sébire. Peace on her family.

18 years ago today, early on a Sunday morning, Daughter broke through into the light bringing sunshine to our lives.

Girl, we love you. And your faith, commitment and perseverance, inward and outward beauty, along with many other qualities, have made it easy to be your parents.

Happy Birthday…

Wife and I ran a 15K on Saturday near Bern (Kerzers). Fantastic race weather with temps in the low 60’s. I was shooting for just-under-five-minute kilometers, hoping to finish in 1:13. It’s a tough race with 150 feet of climbing in the first kilometer, followed by level then some downhill, then very steep uphill on kilometers 9 and 11, a gradual drop to the start-finish line. 6000 people ran, and our group, F, lined up for the 12:39 PM start, since starts were staggered every 2 minutes.

We finished the first uphill bit in 5:25 (about right), then hit the 2K mark at 9:33, which was a little fast, so I slowed. Wife was about 30 seconds behind.

The kilometers passed by at an easy pace. At 8K I was at 37:30. I crossed 9K at 60ish (not a typo, sniff sniff). My tachycardia attacked while beside the lake at the 8.5 mark. I exited to the side of the narrow passage, pulse at 240, squatted down and concentrated, but no luck. No privacy, too much frustration at hearing the runners pass, and many concerned runners calling out in German and French if I was okay.

After 20 minutes, I shuffled to where the hill was, tachycardia still strong, and found a quiet place behind a barn. The tachycardia disappeared (pulse back down to 120) and I was able to run some very tired 6 minute K’s, until another tachycardia hit at kilometer 13. I crossed the finish line at 1 hour, 42 minutes and 24 seconds (I think), tachycardia persisting, Wife and Daughter both worried. They had checked with the medical people and knew no one had been wheeled out on a stretcher, but were still relieved to see me.

Me? I was just plain frustrated and extremely tired. It’s rare that my tachycardia last 30 minutes, and I’ve had but one during a race, and for only 2 minutes.

I finished 590th. Third to last. 592 were in my category. Room for improvement. Or maybe, no more 15K races.

We stuffed ourselves on desserts last Wednesday afternoon. I normally hate mingling, but there was the promise of sweets and we gave it a shot and came out winners. Big time.

There was fruit of all kinds. There were three different kinds of mousse (raspberry, chocolate and white chocolate) and two or three cakes that had three layers of chocolate in them. There was mille feuilles and cookies and cakes and wafers and, well, everything but ice-cream and cherry cobbler. (European desserts are small, but very rich.)

So we mingled. Our Pepperdine student buddies gave some speeches. Really excellent, informative and short, and then we got to mingle again, meet some of the nicest people in the world (who were not just there for desert), many on the Board of Regents who came to see Pepperdine’s Lausanne facility, meet the students and the staff, and mingle.

I learned all kinds of things about my sisters and brother (a later post) who are all Pepperdine alumnae. I met some of their neighbors, some of their teachers, some of their spiritual family, one of their ex-bosses. A great time.

We waddled home, glad to have mingled. It gave us the chance to catch up, and to receive encouragement from unexpected places.

I have trouble knowing what is in my control and what isn’t. Sure, in a sense, nothing is under my control. Plans for the future, even what we’ll do tomorrow, are but penciled-in dates, and can be erased, changed or forgotten in a literal lack-of heartbeat.

Because of the above, when faced with a challenge, I struggle with reasonable expectations. How great is my influence in this particular situation? How much does the effectiveness of “the thing” depend on me?

My dreams during early ministry were so large that they were, in fact, illusions. I can remember crying on my “old” friend Clifford’s shoulder while he counseled: You only spend 3 hours a week max with these kids. You are but one influence among hundreds. Get some perspective.

Perspective: Seeing people and situations from God’s point of view; Preaching big things because you believe the God of the message, however he works, transforms people through it.

These days, I tend to see my sphere of influence as quite small, sometimes microscopic. Looking within doesn’t offer perspective. But what does God see?

I want to hold on to dreams that come from above. For people change. Just look at what God’s done in you.

I would love to be part of a big local church. Especially a faithful church that sings with all their heart. But, there is an advantage in being small: We are mobile. Last week we cancelled services and went to the Geneva church retreat that took place here in Lausanne. Not a logistical problem. Everyone made it. Next Sunday, we’ll meet with several members of Pepperdine’s Board of Regents for a bi-lingual worship at their campus facility. Then on Easter Sunday, we will worship with Bethanie, the local retirement home just up the street, with about 40 residents, tripling our numbers. (They call us “the people with the good voices” because of the acappella singing.)

We met some new friends last night… Wonderful Christians with a godly and intelligent daughter in Pepperdine Lausanne. Their church is so big they have 2 days of worship services and a “north” and a “south” campus. The pastor is “videoed” for one of the campuses and teaches “live” at the other, without revealing where he’ll be in advance.

Big is not necessarily better. Small is not necessarily good. Each have their own pluses and minuses, growing together as they faithfully follow the Head.

As I write this post, "My Yahoo" tells me that a US dollar buys 1.03 Swiss Francs, meaning the dollar purchases 18% less than 2007’s average exchange rate (not counting inflation…)

Unfortunately, I’ve got to take a check to the bank this week, and waiting doesn’t seem to make it much better.

So today a gallon of gas is $7.60.
A postage stamp to the USA: $1.80.
A Big Mac: $6.50.
A coffee (not Starbuck’s): $3.20.
A chocolate Easter Bunny: Priceless.

I know times are tough for many, but ask your mission committee and boards what they are doing for missions with the continued decrease in the dollar.